


What Do You See?

by kittensmctavish



Category: Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Hot Chocolate, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Making Out, No Dialogue, Tumblr: Buzzfeed Creations Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-21 02:57:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16151108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittensmctavish/pseuds/kittensmctavish
Summary: Annie likes hot chocolate. Doesn’t love it, but she likes it.(Written for The Buzzfeed Challenge on tumblr.)





	What Do You See?

**Author's Note:**

> just barely getting this posted in time. recommended listening is “vianne sets up shop” from “chocolat”, a movie that, despite what this fic would maybe have you believe, i don’t care for that much.
> 
> (annie and adam are precious and i wanna date them both.) (i also hope they never read this.) (do i mean the fic? do i mean the part about wanting to date both of them?) (yes.)

Annie likes hot chocolate. Doesn’t love it, but she likes it.

***

They’re filming an episode on hot chocolate. Part of a special holiday miniseries that’ll air in December.

The weather and the leaves are beginning to turn, making the air in New York brisk. Crisp. Sharp. All those nice one-syllable words with a snap to them.

There are so many hints in the air. Clove and nutmeg from pumpkin spice–flavored everything. Smoke and burning wood from someone building a fire somewhere. And something not quite describable, but fills one’s mind and lungs with the feeling of fall.

There’s also enough of a chill that Andrew bemoans not bringing a hat and Steven’s hands are tucked into his pockets the majority of the time they’re filming.

Annie’s quite comfortable temperature-wise, with a soft scarf tucked around her neck and wool fingerless gloves on her hands. (The gloves are her own, perfect for work—they keep her hands warm but also allow her to do her job with ease.) (The scarf is Adam’s. He’d loaned it to her, insisting he was fine without it.) (She finds herself tucking her face down into the scarf throughout the day, usually when a particularly strong gust of wind hits and she needs the warmth. She tried not to breathe into the soft fabric too deeply, tries not to think of how nice the lingering scent of a familiar cologne smells.)

***

The first place is a still-fairly-new stand, selling high-quality hot chocolate for a dollar a cup (well, it LOOKS high quality—thick, creamy, the kind of drink that’ll keep you warm for a good two hours after it’s been drunk). That’s kind of the idea, though. Just because something IS cheap doesn’t mean it should be made cheaply. At least, that’s the vendor’s belief. And the portion size is more than reasonable, for just a dollar. Some would call it excessive, the vendor says. It’s the holidays, the vendor has to say to that. Everyone deserves a treat for the holidays.

Annie bites back laughter when the first thing Steven praises is how nice the cup of chocolate feels to hold, his hands are SO cold. (Like one of his hands hasn’t been entwined with Andrew’s when the cameras aren’t looking.) The “wow” that is drawn from Andrew upon first sip is one of those prolonged, genuinely impressed and surprised “wow’s”. It tastes like something from his childhood, while also aware of the fact that he’s never had anything like this before. It’s perfectly comforting. Steven’s agrees completely.

When Annie takes a sip from her own cup a little later for the camera, she gets what they’re talking about. It’s warm, but not burning hot, and she can feel the warmth already spreading through her body, and is does indeed invoke a childlike feeling within her…almost a giddiness. The chocolate isn’t sickly sweet, but not bitter—a perfect balance. The texture is smooth and almost velvety with how thick it is. She smiles around the brim of the cup as she goes in for another sip. She hears a small huff of laughter from behind the camera and glances in its direction as she drinks. The camera is blocking Adam’s face, so she doesn’t know what about her reaction she’s laughing at. It’s not like she let out a nigh-orgasmic moan as Steven and Andrew are wont to do when tasting something. She asks if she has chocolate on her face or something, ready to reach up with her hand and wipe it away. (No, she’s perfect, Adam assures her. Her face feels warmer than it did a few seconds ago; she tries to tell herself it’s the chocolate.)

***

The second place is a small chocolaterie in one of the more artsy boroughs of New York. The chocolaterie was heavily inspired by the one in the film “Chocolat”, right down to a lot of the décor and the confections that are sold. The owner of the chocolaterie, a woman a few years older than Annie, cared less about the story, she says, and rather more on the cinematography. It was the first film that she remembers made her fall in love with food, specifically chocolate.

She shows them a large stone disc with Mayan carvings on it, inspired by the plate that Juliette Binoche and her daughter would spin for people and ask them what they saw, before giving them the treat they’d find the most pleasure in. She asks if any of them would like to give it a try before they move on to the main attraction. Indulge her. (She’s looking at Annie when she asks them to “indulge her”…Annie somehow gets the feeling it’s more directed at her, which is…something.)

Steven, of course, is the first to volunteer. She spins. He stares. Leaves blowing around in the wind, he says he sees. Andrew sees honey swirling into a cup of tea. Adam doesn’t say what he sees…or he says it so quietly that neither the camera nor Annie’s ears pick it up. (The owner either hears or just seems to know, based on the raise of her eyebrows and the upward quirk of her lips.)

Come Annie’s turn, she stares at the spinning disc for a while, the lost patterns mesmerizing. She does see something…she hesitates to say it. The owner asks gently, teasingly, what she sees. Annie says a crackling fire on a hearth. (Not completely a lie. It is the second thing that came to her mind. But it’s not the first unspoken thing she saw.) (Again, based on the glint in the owner’s eyes and the way she’s smiling at Annie, she might just know.) (…or she’s flirting with Annie.) (Or both. It could be both.)

It’s on to the main attraction from there. The hot chocolate. Four dollars a cup.

Based in the tradition of the Mayans, she explains as she ladles chocolate into small earthen cups, so not the sweet concoction one initially thinks of. The Mayans would grind cacao beans into a paste and mix it with hot water and dried chili pepper. The mixture would be poured back and forth between two cups until frothy. There was no sugar in Central America, and the Spaniards were the ones to introduce milk to the recipe, as they found traditional Mayan drinking chocolate too bitter.

She follows this traditional recipe, but adds some of the things that might have been added back then. Vanilla bean, honey, a little bit of cinnamon, ground maize to thicken it. Not quite as bitter, but still steeped in history.

The cups have no handles, as traditional coffee mugs do, but they’re not burning to the touch. Steven has a visible reaction to the kick from the chili pepper. It’s not overwhelmingly hot or spicy, but it’s certainly present. Andrew describes the taste as unexpected. It ISN’T what one knows hot chocolate as, but it IS what hot chocolate WAS. Came into the world as.

Annie agrees with Andrew completely upon first sip. There’s no presence of the cloying sugary sweetness of, say, a store-bought Swiss Miss mix. There’s a pleasant heat from the chili and cinnamon, and just enough sweetness from the vanilla and honey to cut through the earthiness of the cacao. It’s a thick, hearty concoction, but in a very different way from the first place. And honestly, Annie likes bitter sometimes.

She’s setting her cup down when the owner appears over her shoulder with a small plate, which she holds in front of Annie. A small chocolate confection sits in the middle of the plate. Milk chocolate with smoked sea salt and cinnamon. And the slightest bit of cayenne. Her voice is hushed and deep in Annie’s ear, and yeah, she’s DEFINITELY flirting with Annie, which…what? Annie glances up shyly and murmurs a “thank you” as she takes the treat with two fingers, cupping her other hand underneath, lest any shards of chocolate break off when she bites. The shell cracks nicely between her teeth, the sea salt sprinkled on top lightly scratching against her tongue. The cinnamon and the low heat from the cayenne are warm and crackly, like a fire on a hearth.

Before she can give her compliments, a hand reaches for her cheek, a thumb tracing against her lip. Adam says something about her having a bit of chocolate there. When she looks over, he’s sucking something off of his thumb, eyes on her, though flickering up at the owner with a flash of…something…

…she’s kind of ready to leave this place because there’s a lot of…weirdness happening.

***

They’re back at Serendipity 3. …well…Steven, Andrew, and Adam are. It’s Annie’s first time.

Because how could they do this episode and not do the famous Frrrozen Hot Chocolate?

At $12.95 to $15.95 a goblet, depending on what flavor one goes with. (Today, they are going for the traditional.)

Yes, there are many ways to make it at home, along with dozens of copycat recipes floating around on the internet. But Serendipity 3’s official recipe – specifically, their blend of at least 14 different types of cocoas – remains a secret. At its simplest form, it’s the cocoa mix blended with milk and ice until nice and slushy, then topped with mounds of whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Andrew quips about the $25,000 Frrrozen Haute Chocolate from about a decade back, and how they would NEVER have gotten the go-ahead to do something THAT expensive. Steven laughs and reminisces about the Golden Opulent Sundae from the Ice Cream episode (at a much more reasonable…well…comparably reasonable…$1,000).

Andrew does voice his opinions on the oxymoronic term “frozen hot chocolate”. And also wonders aloud for the camera is one day, science would figure out how to make frozen hot chocolate with the texture of being frozen but the temperature of being hot, like real hot chocolate. Steven’s slightly baffled but mostly adoring of the man sitting next to him, and can’t really do anything but laugh and lean against him.

At one point, Steven finds himself blowing on a spoonful of the frozen treat like it’s a spoonful of soup. It’s Andrew’s turn to lean against the man next to him and laugh.

Adam digs all the way down to the bottom of the goblet to get a bite, as Annie scoops a small bite from the side, trying to get all the elements. There’s a complexity to the dish that brings it beyond the typical frozen chocolate dessert. A depth to the chocolate taste, thanks to all the varieties of cocoas used to make it. The whipped cream is perfectly light, not to sweet, complementing the frozen treat nicely. When Annie turns to see what Adam thinks, she covers her still-full mouth as a small laugh escapes her. Adam asks if he has something on his face, knowing full well there’s a dollop of whipped cream on his nose. Annie, still laughing, reaches over with a napkin to wipe it away. She sets her spoon down and gently, carefully, hold his face with the other hand to keep it steady as she wipes the cream away. (She avoids looking Adam directly in the eye, hopes he can’t feel the slight tremble to her hands, tries to ignore the softness of his beard beneath her fingertips.)

***

They film the wrap-up on the walk back to their hotel. Night is falling, the sky darkening., their time is limited.

Steven chooses the first place. While he appreciates Serendipity 3 for having them again and for the staying power of a somewhat iconic dessert, and while the experience at the chocolaterie was unique, there is something nostalgic about the street vendor he likes and appreciates, as well as the vendor’s belief that a good quality hot chocolate should be affordable to everyone. Andrew goes with the chocolaterie. It was sort of a whole-package deal, with the ambiance and the spinning plate and the recreation of a centuries-old recipe.

When Adam is asked for his Worth It winner, he says the chocolaterie. Annie bites her lip when she is asked.

Out loud, she says the street vendor. But really…probably the chocolaterie. She avoids looking at Adam as Steven and Andrew finish their couple-y banter, tucking her face into her (his) scarf. (If her cheeks are slightly flushed, it’s just from the sting of the wind.)

***

When they get back to the hotel, Steven and Andrew are off to their room to warm up. That could mean a number of things, and Annie’s not going to ask. Only that they don’t tangle the cords from their mic packs and bring them to her when it’s convenient.

Adam follows Annie into her room, where her roommate for the trip has been the equipment. She sets the camera down carefully on the bedside table before lugging one of the equipment suitcases up on to the one-of-two queen beds she hasn’t been sleeping in. She unloops the scarf from around her neck and thanks Adam for lending it to her. He nods and murmurs something in return. (“You’re welcome”? “Of course”? “Always”? She’s not sure.)

She unbuttons her jacket as she walks back over to the suitcase, reaching for the camera to begin taking it apart to pack up. As she works, she freezes at the light touch of two hands slipping her jacket from her shoulders, lowering her arms so the sleeves can slip away, again not daring to look at Adam as he draper her jacket over the chair, next to where his is draped.

The only sound in the room for a while is the clattering of sound equipment being taken apart, tripods, monopods, bags being zipped and unzipped. Annie’s fingers brush against Adam’s hand as he hands her something, and she lets out a small gasp at how cold his skin is. She sets down whatever it is he’s just handed her and takes his hand in her still-fingerless-gloved ones, trying to rub some warmth into it.

He’d said he was fine. That the cold wasn’t a problem. She’d offered him her gloves in return for his scarf and he’d said no, but he’d been FREEZING this whole time just so she could be warm and he didn’t HAVE to do that, she liked him enough as it is—

And there it is. What she’s been tiptoeing around for days, weeks, possibly months, she’s not quite sure at this point—put simply, a ridiculously long time. Admitting makes it too real. Results in too much of a letdown and possible heartbreak should the liking not be mutual…

…but Annie’s hands still their ministrations as Adam’s fingers curls around one of them, his other hand raising to cover hers. At least, she thought so…but instead, he gently tugs at her gloves to slip them off, soft black fabric falling to the floor silently. The stretch of their arms is less, the toes of his shoes nudging hers, and she knows if she looks up, his face will be so close…

…he’s someone she’s never let herself dream about too much, just in case…this longing something she tried to suppress…something that came to mind unbidden when asked what she saw in the spinning plate at the chocolaterie…

…and as Adam’s hand reaches up to brush away the hair that has fallen into her face, his fingertips lingering against her cheek before cupping her face in full, tilting her head up towards his, she knows—somehow, she just knows, she realizes as he leans in closer to brush his lips against hers—that he saw her, too.

It’s so feather-light and hesitant, Annie’s afraid she almost imagines it…until he’s nearly pulling away, and Annie chases the movement, suddenly releasing his hand and reaching up to splay her fingers against his neck, hold him in place, ensure this is real. Until she remembers herself and breaks away, shocked by her own boldness…

…and then his hands are at her waist and his mouth is on hers again only firmer and deeper and even though it’s literally been hours, Annie swears she can taste the chocolaterie on him, the spice and the heat and the warmth and she hopes that what’s happening is real and not just whatever magic the owner may or may not have worked on them because she’s wanted this for so long, she’s liked him for so long…

…him, too. It’s whispered in a break between fevered kisses. She realizes she must have voiced that last bit aloud. She doesn’t recall. But when she opens her eyes to look up at him…there is so much in his eyes, and he’s smiling at her so sweetly. And she smiles back, and smiles into their next kiss, and wraps her arms around him tighter because she can.

***

Annie’s never loved anything more than hot chocolate. (Except for Adam.)

**Author's Note:**

> feedback welcome and appreciated.


End file.
